The Harlem Armory in upper Manhattan was built in 1933 to honor the celebrated 369th Regiment—also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, the first black regiment to fight in World War I. On a recent Saturday, however, the Art Deco edifice at Fifth Avenue and 142nd Street hosted an army of parents and educators who are fighting to provide Harlem children with decent schools.
Despite heavy snowfall the night before, more than 3,000 people trekked to the third annual Harlem Education Fair. They came to survey their schooling options, which have proliferated in recent years thanks mostly to the growth of charter schools and despite strong opposition from the teachers unions.
New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein asked the parents there to "think back about a decade ago, and how few choices families in Harlem had." Surrounded by long rows of draped card tables piled with school brochures and information packets, he added, "The reason they have choices now is because we've created an environment where everyone who can run great schools wants to come to Harlem."
New York state passed a charter law in 1998, and the first charter school in Harlem opened the next year. But it is New York City's mayoral control law, passed in 2002, that's allowed school choice for low-income families to blossom. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has the authority to hire and fire the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of the city's board of education, which previously had been controlled by teachers unions.
Today there are 24 Harlem charters. They select students by lottery, and they educate about 7,700 of the community's 50,000 school-age kids. Another 5,700 children matriculate at one of Harlem's 30 private and parochial schools.
"Harlem now has more school choice per square foot than any other place in the country," says Eva Moskowitz, who operates four charters in Harlem. Nationwide, the average black 12th grader reads at the level of a white eighth grader. Yet Harlem charter students at schools like KIPP and Democracy Prep are outperforming their white peers in wealthy suburbs. At the